Zaun's Late-Night Visitor

Light applause rippled through the room.

No one present held back their applause, as if blessing the young girl for overcoming a difficult challenge.

Much of the hesitation on Orianna's face faded as she looked at Seraphine, seeing encouragement in her eyes.

She no longer hesitated but stood up, bowing respectfully to Seraphine and Ryan, her words sincere:

"Mr. Ryan, Seraphine, thank you for your help."

"Go on, Orianna. I need to practice this song in my head more, to get it just right."

Seraphine hummed a requiem tune, pink specks of light swirling around her like starlight, incredibly beautiful.

Orianna also stopped hesitating and began to clean up the operating table where she had performed her heart transplant.

After tonight, she would leave the home she had lived in for over ten years.

Some things needed to be let go.

While Orianna was preparing, Corin returned from outside.

Under Seraphine's dumbstruck gaze, Corin entered the room and was immediately injected with an anesthetic in the neck, then dragged onto the operating table by Orianna while unconscious.

"Miss Seraphine, you mentioned earlier that your parents are from Zaun?"

Ryan's question brought Seraphine back to reality. She looked at the calm trio before her and felt that she had overreacted.

Perhaps she had spent too much time in her small house; maybe this was just how normal fathers and daughters communicated.

"Yes, even though they're from Zaun, I'm doing very well."

A look of happiness spread across Seraphine's face as she spoke of her parents.

"Why did you add 'even though,' Miss Seraphine? Do you not approve of the place?" Ryan suddenly asked with a smile.

"This…"

Ryan's question left Seraphine a little flustered. She had never been to Zaun, but she had always heard her parents say it was a terrible place.

Occasionally, she would also see guests from Zaun in her music workshop, and the songs sung by their souls were always awful.

But deep down, she had always harbored a small wish to visit Zaun, where her parents had grown up.

The recent events in the Twin Cities made her feel that perhaps it wasn't so bad after all.

Seraphine considered for a moment, then shook her head earnestly:

"Mr. Ryan, I don't know what it's like there, but I feel I shouldn't be blinded by prejudice. I will go and see for myself someday."

"How about tonight? After Orianna's experiment is over, I was just thinking of recommending someone to her, and you could go along and see it too." Ryan offered, a slight smile on his lips.

"But… my parents will worry…"

Seraphine was tempted, but remembering her parents' warnings, she hesitated.

"I'll take care of it for you. Don't overthink it now. Orianna needs you. You are a trustworthy Soul Singer!"

Ryan stood up, patted the girl's shoulder, and left the workshop with Katarina.

Seraphine's presence was merely a safeguard, intended to boost Orianna's confidence.

In Ryan's view, the girl who could create miracles on her own would ultimately succeed, even without their help.

After they left the room, Seraphine's joyful singing echoed from within. Katarina couldn't help but ask:

"Are we going to her house now?"

"To see the parents who could raise a Soul Singer. If her parents truly love her, they will surely have prepared something for her."

Ryan toyed with the Hex Gemstone he had shown Orianna earlier, a knowing look on his face.

Not long after he and Katarina left, the workshop was enveloped in pink light. The loud and joyful singing reached a crescendo, filling the entire workshop with a hymn of praise for life.

After an unknown amount of time, the singing subsided, the pink light dissipated, and the workshop returned to its usual tranquility.

After leaving a letter, Orianna quietly left the workshop with Seraphine…

Zaun, night.

Two slender young girls huddled on a mechanical platform barely big enough for one person. The platform moved swiftly across the turbulent sea.

Seraphine stood on the platform, swaying slightly, humming a tune, her eyes filled with anticipation.

She wasn't sure how Ryan had convinced her parents, but in the end, she had received a platform that was supposedly able to carry her everywhere.

And after Ryan loaded it with a Hex Gemstone, the platform could amplify the songs she received and better transmit her own voice.

In this world, there was nothing more valuable to her than this.

With this platform, she could truly listen to the songs sung by Zaun's souls.

In contrast to her fresh excitement, Orianna looked at the approaching Zaun with an indescribable emotion in her eyes.

The beginning of her life's change had come from Zaun, and the end of her identity as Corin's daughter—Orianna—might also be in Zaun.

"Wow! What a huge robot! Is its creator the person we're looking for?"

As the small platform neared the shore, the ten-meter-tall steel robot became clearly visible, making Seraphine cover her mouth and gasp in surprise.

"It should be him. The man we're looking for is named Viktor. I heard he can guide me on my future path." Orianna's lips still held a serene smile.

"Are you really going to follow Mr. Ryan? Oh, I didn't mean anything by it. He's your benefactor, I just think you could live a little more for yourself."

Seraphine quickly corrected herself, hearing the unease emanating from Orianna's soul.

"He helped me resolve the fate of my first half of life. Following him, perhaps I can achieve my former wishes. Whether it's to repay him or to realize myself, I should follow him."

Orianna brushed her hand over her heart. She could feel that there was no heartbeat there anymore, only the vibrations from the Hex Crystal as it transmitted energy.

She understood very clearly that she could have perfectly well stayed in that small workshop, making dolls her entire life.

But as the mechanization of her body began, many things she had once found incredibly interesting no longer held her attention.

She didn't want her body to become a mere machine over time. Sometimes, taking the first step meant change, regardless of whether it was good or bad in the end. At least it was better than doing nothing at all.

"Alright, alright. Your singing is almost as full of praise for Mr. Ryan as Katarina's, sister. I really want to hear his Soul Singer. I wonder what kind of magic it holds."

Seraphine pouted, discontentedly stomping her feet, making slapping sounds on the flat surface.

This small flat surface was good in every way, except that even when stepping on it, she couldn't hear Ryan's Soul Singer.

As the two approached the shore, two Zaunites in police-issued iron armor came into view.

One tall, one short, both men didn't look old, but their bodies were exceptionally strong.

Compared to them, Piltover's Enforcers looked like scrawny little chicks.

"Welcome to Zaun, late-night visitors."